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Digital Communities: Week 7 Overview

| Nov 30th, 2015

by O2 Business

Our Digital Communities project in St Helens continues. As usual, the Hub was open for the local community, and even those simply passing through, to get involved. Whether they needed somewhere to work, advice on how to build a website or just some support setting up email on their new smartphone – we were there to help.

Last week, we repeated The Future of Digital seminar and our introduction to technology class. But, the highest attended session was on Thursday. We ran another Parent Online Safety workshop as part of our partnership with the NSPCC. Online safety is a major concern for many parents as more young children get online or start to ask for their own smartphones and tablets.

At O2, we believe children embracing technology, getting online and using apps isn’t something parents should be afraid of. There is a whole range of tools, websites and apps out there waiting to be discovered. They can assist with homework, help maintain friendships or just allow children to have some fun. But of course, preventing them from seeing inappropriate content, or being contacted by strangers, is essential.

To help parents protect their children online, the workshop outlined 5 main tips;

Talk about online safety early, often and use privacy settings and reporting tools

Explore sites, apps and games together so you aren’t in the dark about what they’re doing

Set rules and boundaries as you would offline, and explain why they are important

Make sure content is age-appropriate by monitoring what they are viewing

Next week, we will continue to repeat some of our most popular sessions including the Parent Online Safety Workshops and the Future of Digital seminars. We’ll also be running a brand new session around helping people with sight loss get online. And, if you attend one of the workshops, you could be in with a chance of winning an iPad.